The uncertainty over the mid-day meals being served at Bihar’s schools continues to haunt the Nitish Kumar Government as teachers did not give any assurance for withdrawal of their boycott of the scheme during their meeting with senior officers of the State Education Department on Saturday.
General secretary of the Bihar Primary Teachers’ Association MP Shahi told The Pioneer that the association would convene a meeting in Patna on July 29 to take a final call on the matter. He said that opinions from chiefs of the district units of the association will be elicited too in this connection. In view of the current stalemate over the issue, it is almost certain that children are going to miss their mid-day meals again on Monday when their schools reopen after the weekend.
Teachers are quite anguished over the way they are being targeted after the tragedy in Saran district recently, claiming lives of 23 children. All victims of the tragedy had eaten their meals at their Government Primary School at Dharmasati Gandaman village in Mashrakh area of Saran district. The Village Education Committees which look after the mid-day meal scheme in schools are represented not only by teachers but these committees have also representation from diverse sections of the society. In such a situation why teachers are alone being targeted after the Chhapra tragedy, asked a leader of the Teachers’ Association on the condition of anonymity.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has appealed agitating teachers to withdraw their boycott of the programme, stating that any decision to delink them from the mid-day meal scheme could not be taken immediately. He said that the Supreme Court has also given its directions in this regard and hence teachers should cooperate in the smooth implementation of the mid-day meal scheme.
Mid-day meals are served at 70,000 schools of the State, covering around 1.40 crore children, majority of them coming from weaker sections of the society. Meanwhile, the police have arrested a teacher on the charge of keeping insecticide inside the kitchen of a primary school at Maudhiara village in Rohtas district. District Magistrate of Rohtas, Sandeep Kumar R Pudakalkatti told The Pioneer that an FIR has been registered against the teacher, Manoj Kumar Choudhary in this connection.
He said that the investigation is being made to find out whether the teacher had kept the insecticide inside the kitchen with any wrong motive. The teacher, however, has pleaded not guilty, stating that he had kept the insecticide in the classroom by mistake and it was meant for the use in his agricultural field. The insecticide has been identified as thymet, the officer informed, adding that children found a bottle of the insecticide when they were taking out utensils from rakes for their mid-day meals. Pudakalkatti said that it was an incident of criminal negligence on the part of the teacher even if he had not any wrong motive in keeping the insecticide in the school.